


ace of hearts

by angstics



Series: after the storm, there is peace and reconstruction ~| post-hoo scenes [1]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Banter, Canon Compliant, Feelings Realization, Fluffy, Friends to Lovers, Internalized Homophobia, M/M, Mutual Pining, Post-Canon, Pre-Relationship, Solitaire - Freeform, Some angst, Swearing, bi!will, set ~a month after boo, soft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-20
Updated: 2019-07-20
Packaged: 2020-06-25 03:56:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,268
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19737814
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angstics/pseuds/angstics
Summary: how nico and will became a coupleIt was dead set September. Nico di Angelo was laying on the warm panels of the Apollo cabin, rows of cards set halfway into a game of Solitaire. Far more often than not, he was with Will Solace.





	ace of hearts

**Author's Note:**

> one of two nico-centric fics that look into scenes after the blood of olympus. this one shows how nico and will confessed their feelings and became a couple. short, sweet, and cute.
> 
> tw: internalized homophobia (canon typical, not extreme)

> _moodboard:_

It was dead set September. Nico di Angelo was laying on the warm panels of the Apollo cabin, rows of cards set halfway into a game of Solitaire. Far more often than not, he was with Will Solace.

Will was doing gods know what on the windowsill behind Nico. Maybe he was tending to the ferns, or reading a book on human mobility, or gazing out to the fields, taking in the last bites of summer. With his free curls covering his strikingly-soft blue eyes. His deep smile indulging in the quiet simplicity of life after war. A part of Nico wondered if the sun was reflecting gold off of his face or if the shadow of a cloud was bringing out the curves and contours of his cheeks.

Stuck in a daydream, he pulled out a two of spades and placed it on the almost completed set. All he needed now was an ace of hearts. Nico sighed into the safe silence. Nico glanced behind him. It looked like Will was dozing off, his eyelashes drooped, seemingly ignorant of the bright sun right on his eyelids. Nico’s subconscious was right; he looked like a golden statue.

The smile on his lips fell as his mouth trembled. That long-ridden fear surfaced- although it was always there, always hidden until a thought slipped. _Quiet it_ , Nico demanded to himself. But the black sludge of shame isn’t easy to spite, especially when one has lived it in for so long.

Doing what he did best, Nico shoved all that he felt about Will Solace down, down to the pit of his stomach. He thought this may always be who he was and it frightened him more than the thought of falling in love with another boy. 

And it wasn’t love, he assured himself. Because if it wasn’t wrong, it was fake. And if it wasn’t fake, it was pointless. And if it wasn’t pointless, it was impossible. Because Will didn’t think of him like that, of course. Nico understood that now, after the journey he’d had with his feelings to Percy Jackson. He couldn’t hate things that didn't go along with what he wanted.

A four of spades over a five of diamonds to move a queen of hearts to an empty space. “Dumb game,“ Nico grumbled as he placed a new row of cards over the sets. A new ace of spades taunted him.

“Hey.” Will’s voice carried itself around Nico, light and joyous. Nico closed his eyes for a long second then turned to the boy, trying to not look crumpled and pathetic.

“Did I wake you?” The light glinted from Will’s eyes and, my, was it hard to ignore something like him. Nico felt the urge to run away and never come back, but he thought that may be too dramatic, even for him.

“No,” Will chuckled. “No, I wasn’t asleep.”

Nico stretched his hands and tried to smile with him. “Don’t act so vandalized. It isn’t exactly uncharacteristic of you, Solace.”

“Yeah, well, _di Angelo_ ,” he teased, “I’m sorry for taking advantage of the ‘no one wanting to kill us’ peace. Your gaggle of friends really gave us non-questers a hard few years.”

Nico now truly beamed. “Wasn’t their fault powerful beings could only be defeated by an army of teens.” Nico glanced outside. The camp was relatively still these days. He was either with Will, or Will and his half-siblings, or Will and Chiron, or Will and the odd injured camper. Always Will.

And it was Will who asked from his perch, “What’re you thinking about?”

“It’s a dangerous thing to ask a son of Hades what he’s thinking about.” WIll’s face only grew brighter. Nico tilted his head. “It was nothing. Just how empty this place is now. Not that I’m complaining, really. I’m good alone.”

“That isn’t true,” Will said. He turned around to drop his feet to the ground. Placing his hands on the sill, he continued, “You would never say it but you like people when they’re good. You also would never admit how likeable _you_ are when you drop the angst and the whole,” Will lifted his fingers in quotation marks, “' _I’m the son of Death, king of ghosts, commander of zombies_ ’ thing.”

“I don’t say that.”

“Occasionally, you do. And we’ve had a lot of occasions.”

“And I’m not likeable,” Nico laughed without a smile, eyes darting to the window.

When he looked back, Will was frowning. “You are to me.”

Pain built up behind Nico’s eyes, from the center of his temple. He sighed again and went back to his game. Jack of spades over the queen of hearts, then he was stuck again.

A few minutes went by as Nico figured how to solve the set and Will tapped on the window pane in a familiar, Mozart tune.

“Hey,” Will repeated, in a murmur.

Nico continued playing the game. “Uh-huh?” he acknowledged.

“Do you want to be together?” He rushed it out like he it was water he’d been gurgling for hours.

Nico froze. His fingers twitched and shook in front of him. “We’re- together right now, aren’t we?” he squeaked out.

Will fell to the ground to sit next to Nico. He crossed his legs, looking forward. Away from Nico.

“No, Nico.” He sounded so unreasonably serious. “ _Together_ together. A couple. Partners. More than friends. Boyf-”

Nico banged the ground with his flexed hand. “But I’m not- You’re not-”

“What, gay? I’ve liked gals since I was 7, and guys since I was 8,” he smiled at the dresser in front of them and Nico was entranced. This all felt like a dream. “It’s never been an issue to me, or anyone who I called a friend.” His eyes shifted to Nico then away. “And someone as pretty as you can’t be straight.”

 _Pretty_. Nico would’ve laughed. “Straight?”

“That wasn’t a thing back then, was it? It means only liking the opposite gender.”

“And you’re not- that?”

He shook his head. Nico’s heart beat, beat, beat.

“And that’s normal? Okay?” Will nodded.

His limbs tingled. No one ever told him it was truly okay. He’d lived in limbo ever since his friends had accepted him with open arms; too scared and too content to ask. Nico felt he could breath again.

“So it’s okay if I-” his voice broke, and that pain from before came back in full force, “It’s okay if I’m not- that either?”

Tension let go of Will’s shoulders as he exhaled. “Yes. Definitely, 100% yes. I realize that the whole time-displacement thing doesn’t help. People were bigger dicks in the 40s. But I want this. I really, really like you,” Will looked at him with his permanent smile and warm eyes. “So if you want this, for the love of all the gods, tell me. Please, Nico.”

Nico stared at him, and he thought that if he did that long enough, Will would be able to feel all the longing in his heart, all the fondness he couldn’t comprehend. He almost didn’t hear himself when he uttered:

“Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Yes, okay.” Nico swallowed. “I want to be with you. As partners.”

“Okay.”

“Okay.”

Will engulfed his hand. Nico almost jumped out of his skin with the nerves running through his arm. He tapped his fingers on the floor. With weeks of built up bravery, Nico laced their fingers. Warmth overtook him as he examined their hands. He looked at Will’s wide grin and felt so eternally lucky to be here, in this moment.

“I really like you too, for the record.”

**Author's Note:**

> comments, kudos, all types of love are greatly appreciated
> 
> @angstics on tumblr


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